Key Points

• Federal support for carbon capture is under pressure from budget cuts, project cancellations, and legislative efforts that could weaken deployment incentives.
• 45Q remains the central policy lever, but it is also the main point of dispute over whether carbon capture reduces emissions or subsidizes fossil fuel activity.
• State Class VI primacy and standardized MRV systems are emerging as practical tools for speeding CO2 storage permitting and making projects financeable.
• Shared CO2 pipeline and storage infrastructure remains a key bottleneck, with regulatory clarity and administrative capacity still uneven.
• The current debate splits between CCS as industrial decarbonization infrastructure and CCS as a mechanism that can support enhanced oil recovery and other fossil-linked activity.
• Most of the signal is current and policy-driven, with one background explainer providing structural context rather than a separate new development.